Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.

Don't show me this message again

Lamentation for Maundy Thursday

Introduction

Padilla’s six-part Lamentations are properly traditional, being set almost archaicly in polyphony that is firmly based on the Spanish (Toledo) Lamentation tone. As always the Hebrew letters—Aleph, Beth, and so on—are composed to sad flowing vocalizations between the verses.

Released to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611), this specially-priced set contains The Tallis Scholars' original releases of Victoria's three most important works, the Requiem, the Lamentations and the Tenebrae R ...» More

Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla (c.1590–1664) is the best-known representative of the Spanish school of composers in Mexico. Born in Málaga, he was employed as a church musician firstly in Jerez de la Frontera and then in Cádiz before moving to New Spain no later than the autumn of 1622. On 11 October he was named cantor and assistant Maestro at Puebla Cathedral with an annual salary of 500 pesos, at a time when this Cathedral boasted a musical establishment on a par with the best in Europe. In 1629 Padilla became Maestro de Capilla, a post he retained until his death. His six-voice setting of the Lamentations is one of his finest achievements, employing an impassioned musical language which is spiced up with the augmented intervals beloved of every Iberian composer of note in the early seventeenth century, Portuguese as much as Spanish. The reduced-voice section at ‘Ghimel’, followed by the verse ‘Migravit Judas’, is a classic case of this. I have never elsewhere come across the astonishing harmonic move he makes at ‘inter gentes’. The fact that this set is scored for SSATTB points to the influence of Victoria and other Spaniards, who tended to favour this line-up in six parts. Victoria’s seminal setting of the Requiem is scored like this. Quite why it was thought appropriate to use such a potentially bright sound for Requiems and Laments is one of the many mysteries of the Spanish school.